Last night I attended the training session, learnt lots about dolphin behaviour and the science that we were contributing towards, and received my hat and short to prove that I wasn't just late to work because I was marvelling at the dolphins- I was taking part in important research!
In theory every time I'm in contact with the river, which for me is nearly an hour a day and more if I go for a walk at lunch time, I record if I saw dolphins or not. The not is just as important for an unbiased data set- you need to know where they weren't as much as where they where. I pass through many of their data collection zone on my route, but I think I'm going to focus on reporting for just the ones that they apparently get the least data for, otherwise I could spend ages every day reporting that I didn't see dolphins in any of the 6 zones I passed through in the morning or the evening!
Occasionally they organise days out on the river research boats, where you can watch the dolphins behaviour with the researchers, and learn more about what they are doing and why. I'm muchly looking forward to that!
I'd definately recommend going to look at the
River Guardians website, whether you live in Perth or not. Its full of useful information on how to make small changes to make the ecosystem, and especially our rivers, more healthy!
